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The Last Ever After In the stunning conclusion to the New York Times bestselling School for Good and Evil trilogy, everything old is new again, as Sophie and Agatha fight the past as well as the present to find the perfect end to their fairy tale. See more | School for Good and Evil Series

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Originally serialized in The Saturday Evening Post, June 20-July 18, 1903, this classic remains relevant over 100 years later. The universal themes of survival, kindness, cruelty, and natural instinct are strengthened by Daniels's performance. His voicing provides just the right conversational and friendly tone with a touch of comfortable rasp, adding fresh energy to the timeless story. Buck, a four-year-old St. Bernard-and Scotch Shepherd cross breed, who weighs 140 pounds, has his life changed forever when he is kidnapped and taken to the cold bleakness of the Arctic to work with Klondike gold miners. A film adaptation of this story starring Clark Gable was released in 1935. Comparing and contrasting the audio production and the film will offer students many chances to write about or discuss the two versions. α(c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
--This text refers to the
Audio CD
edition.

Review

"This is the best scholarly edition of The Call of the Wild currently available, with a superb, wide-ranging introduction by Nicholas Ruddick that is a model of judicious lucidity. The edition is also greatly enhanced by a series of fascinating primary documents situating the novella in an array of turn-of-the-twentieth-century cultural contexts, including the Klondike gold rush, Darwin on dogs and men, theories of atavism and instinct, and controversies surrounding charges of plagiarism against Jack London. Highly recommended." - Jonathan Auerbach, University of Maryland
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.

Jack London's letters about the publication of "The Call of the Wild" reveal an all-too-common story that would make any author and most sympathetic readers cringe. In 1903, Jack London was hard up for cash and had just completed the manuscript. He sold the serial rights to the Saturday Evening Post for $700 and, since the editors were not all that keen on his first choice, suggested the title "The Sleeping Wolf." (Interestingly enough, the magazine version did not even include what has probably become the book's most famous scene: when John Thornton blusteringly makes a wager that Buck can pull a sled weighing half a ton.)

Soon after, Macmillan agreed to take a chance on the unknown writer and offered to publish the book for $2,000, with no royalties. By this time, London had warmed to his initial title, "The Call of the Wild," but left the final choice up to his editor. Both the magazine and the book publisher reluctantly used London's now-famous title, and seven years later London wrote to his editor, reminding him of his tin ear: "I'll be damned if that very muchly-rejected title didn't become a phrase in the English language. This is only one of many experiences concerning titles, wherein editors, booksellers, and publishers absolutely missed."

But it still boggles the mind that London earned a grand total of $2,700 for a book that quickly sold more than two million copies.

And what a book! I must have read it three or four times as a youngster, but even now, over twenty years since I last picked it up, it still manages to electrify me. "The Call of the Wild" is often cited as the best work of fiction ever written about dogs, but the book is equally about men--and about London himself.Read more ›

This is a little easier to read version of the original text written by Jack London. I was disappointed because I purchased the book for my classroom to read together with books I already had. The more difficult vocabulary words we were working on were not in this version, even though most of the text is the same. This version is good for someone to read if they are looking for an excellent story that has a simpler text.

London is a tremendously talented writer and his understanding of life matches his tremendous knowledge of the snow-enshrouded world of the upper latitudes. His writing is beautiful, poignant, and powerful, yet also somber, morose, and infinitely real. This isn't a story to read when you are depressed. Although The Call of the Wild is a short novel and on the surface a dog's story, it contains as much truth and reality of man's own struggles as that which can be sifted from the life's work of many other respected authors. The story he tells is stark and real, and as such, it is not pretty picture he paints, nor an elevating story he writes.

As an animal lover, I found parts of this story heartbreaking from Buck's removal from the civilized Southland in which he reigned supreme among his animal kin to the brutal cold and even more brutal machinations of hard, weathered men who literally beat him and whipped him full of lashes. Even sadder are the stories of the dogs that fill the sled's traces around him. Good-spirited Curly never had a chance, while Dave's story is only made bearable because of his brave, undying spirit. Even Spitz, the harsh taskmaster, has to be pitied, despite his harsh nature, for the reader knows this harsh nature was forced upon him by man and his thirst for riches.

Buck's travails are long and hard, but it is his nobility of his spirit that makes of him a hero, despite the primitive animal instincts and urges that dominate him. Buck not only conquers the weather, the harshness of the men, the other dogs and the wolves he comes into contact with, he thrives. Hopes for redemption with John Thornton are dashed in the end, and that's when Buck finally gives in fully to "the call of the wild," becoming a creature of nature only. While this is a sad ending, the reader also feels joy and satisfaction at Buck's refusal to surrender and his ability to find his own kind of happiness in the harsh world in which he is placed.

Gold was found in Alaska, the rush to obtain it required a strong constitution and many dogs to do the work that horses usually did in the states. The environment bread harsh attitudes. Also in the testing of ones mettle one finds their true potential.

Buck (a dog that is half St Bernard and half Shepherd) goes through many lives, trials, and tribulations finally realizing his potential. On the way he learns many concepts from surprise, to deceit, and cunning; he also learns loyalty, devotion, and love. As he is growing he feels the call of the wild.

This book is well written. There is not a wasted word or thought and the story while building on its self has purpose and direction. The descriptions may be a tad graphic for the squeamish and a tad sentimental for the romantic. You see the world through Buck's eyes and understand it through his perspective until you also feel the call of the wild.

Jack London is amazing. Most writers use adjectives to describe a setting, but London's words ARE Alaska. They ARE the bitter struggles a domesticated dog must face in the snowy land. There's a scene in Call of the Wild in which the team of dogs must cover 3000 miles over the virgin terrain without rest. Jack London conveys the bone-tiredness of these dogs down to their heart. It's wonderful how his words bring the characters (I almost don't want to call them characters) fully to life.The story sounds like just a dog tale at first--a dog, Buck, is kidnapped from his comfortable life in California and sold as a sled dog for the Alaskan gold rush. While he endures the wilderness and the other dogs, Buck learns that survival comes only with tooth and fang. This lesson brings him very close to his forbears, the wolves.If you look deeper, Call of the Wild is as much a story of humans as it is a dog tale. Buck encounters various incompetent masters who try to break his spirit. Are we like this? But Buck also learns to trust a master who is gentle and gives love. We can be like this, too.Call of the Wild is not a story for the squeamish or very young. By involving us in the characters' lives, Jack London tells the truth. It is a life-and-death war between the harsh land and the soul every day. There is blood, death, cruelty--but it's the truth.